Electric Water Heater

cliff said:
The ones supplied by Heat Rod are either Incoloy or Stainless - can't comment on the cheapo "domestic" type elements though the one I took out of the HW tank in the house was copper (or copper alloy) in a copper tank.
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Thanks for the replies.

I've sent Heat Rod and Penguin Engineering an email. Thermowatt are not at all helpful. All I want is a new unit that is compatible with the tank, surely it isn't difficult? Are the threads all 2¼" BSP?
 
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Whats the make and model of the tank then ?, i dont think you have told us yet have you ?

I should be able to find out thread size and element length for you then
 
TopDonkey said:
Whats the make and model of the tank then ?, i dont think you have told us yet have you ?

I should be able to find out thread size and element length for you then
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I have no idea, I assumed they were all the same. Looking at another photo, the unit top of the thermostat appears to be about 2½" in diameter, and the tank is about 2' long, made of stainless steel.
 
Its likely to be 2.25" BSP, but without tank details its just a guess, but i'd put it at about 80% chance of being 2.25" BSP and in a 24" length tank, its probably a 10 or 12" element length and 1.5-2KW rating
 
TopDonkey said:
Its likely to be 2.25" BSP, but without tank details its just a guess, but i'd put it at about 80% chance of being 2.25" BSP and in a 24" length tank, its probably a 10 or 12" element length and 1.5-2KW rating
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Picture
d6146afcdcfa4a5c6f3cdffe2fd8c45d.jpg
 
nigelmercier said:
Thank you. So the only variable is the length, do I really only need 12" for a tank about twice this long?
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If you get a standard 27" one you might have to cut a hole in the other end of the tank for it to poke through. :D


Blooming expensive even the eBay bargain.

11" Incoloy one from Screwfix is only £18 but I expect its 3kW, the website does not say .

I dont reckon yours is any more than 1 kW 'cos the wiring does not look heavy enough for anything larger. 1.5 kW maybe

Don't forget you will need the spanner to fit ( and a bit of scaffold tube to extend it perhaps).

Tip: Slacken it before you drain the tank .. the weight of water will help to hold the tank firm.

Test it before you remove it !

I destroyed the tank trying, and failing, to get mine out at home ... Ok 'cos I was replacing the tank but hoped to reuse the heater.


Worth taking a blanking plug with you (about£3) ?????
 
I'm still looking at options for a new heating element. I'm considering getting a lower wattage one, so I can use my 1kW generator. I have a vague memory that the old element was only 800W, but I'd like to know the size of the hot water cylinder before deciding.

Does anyone know what size of cylinder was fitted to a Bavaria 47 in 2000?
 
nigelmercier said:
Does anyone know what size of cylinder was fitted to a Bavaria 47 in 2000?
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I've now got a picture of the base of the heating element, unfortunately some of the numbers are obscured:

Heating-Element_zps0ab9c87b.png


It is made by Reco, so I contacted them with this picture.

I got a very unhelpful reply from Riccardo Oitana <commerciale@recogroup.it>: "The price for 1 pcs is 200,00 euro. Transport at your charge... If all condition are accepted from you, I can help you." This outrageous charge is clearly designed to get rid of me, how unprofessional.
 
Looking at the picture, it looks just like mine did before I tried replacing it. It then promptly fried most of the supply pillars on the pontoon (in Greece, so the things aren't properly isolated from one another). In the end, I bowed to SWMBO and replaced the whole calorifier as the fault just couldn't be put right. Good luck.
 
Nigel, can you get the element out of the calorifier?

If so measure the threads and contact heatrod - they manufacture different sizes of elements including head threads so you can have what ever power rating you want, what ever length you want, single or double bend and fitted to matching head.

To get the element out of my calorifier I soaked the threads in plusgas for a couple of days, used a large box spanner which had a slot cut in one of the flats, a blunt chisel and a club hammer. - With the box spanner held in place and the blunt chisel located in the slot a good sharp smack with the club hammer to drive the box spanner round was all that was needed - once the element moved it unscrewed easily by hand. Keep the chisel as near tangential to the box spanner as possible to give the maximum turning force.

If you cannot get the element out then I would guess you are screwed and will need to remove (and possibly replace) the calorifier.

Just did a bit of checking - Reco quote UNI 338 threads on their elements but those seem to be the same as BSPP
Reco quote 1¼ UNI 338 which gives an od of 41.91mm or 1.650" which seems rather small
2¼ UNI 338 / BSPP has an od of 65.71mm or 2.587"
2½ UNI 338 / BSPP has an od of 75.184mm or 2.960"

Once you get the old one out you can measure the thread diameter and element length and buy a new one to fit.
 
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When I had to replace my heater element the only way to get the old one out was to use a blowlamp on it, because instead of relying on an O ring it had been glued in with hard setting sealant! That entailed disconnecting and moving the calorifier to get it under a hatch!

The photo with the tape measure makes me wonder if it is 2.25 BSP, because the nut is generally bigger accross flats than the thread size. I just looked at my box spanner and it is for about a 9cm or 3.5" AF nut. The nut in the photo looks smaller to me.
 
Norman_E said:
When I had to replace my heater element the only way to get the old one out was to use a blowlamp on it, because instead of relying on an O ring it had been glued in with hard setting sealant! That entailed disconnecting and moving the calorifier to get it under a hatch!

The photo with the tape measure makes me wonder if it is 2.25 BSP, because the nut is generally bigger accross flats than the thread size. I just looked at my box spanner and it is for about a 9cm or 3.5" AF nut. The nut in the photo looks smaller to me.
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It looks 1 1/4" BSP to me quite common on marine calorifiers of low wattage, actually Bainbridge supply those Itallian elements in 800w 1000w and 1200w, also the thermostat probe, last time I bought a thermostat it was about £8 to retail at about £15, the immersion elements are about £45 retail. Normally used in Quick boilers.
 
David2452 said:
It looks 1 1/4" BSP to me quite common on marine calorifiers of low wattage
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I'm fairly sure the flange nut is 2¼" across the flats, see my earlier photo. However, it is around 800W.


The problem is that I don't have access, the boat is in Tenerife, so I'm reliant on asking favours of neighbours in the marina.
 
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Nigel,

To me it look like you are looking for a RECO 3B090900S which is a 1kw, 11" long 1¼"BSPP thread - according to Reco catalogue they do not do anything smaller - see http://www.recogroup.it/catreco.pdf. I am sure someone will come along in a minute and say thy have a 600w or 800w RECO element.

Can you get someone to remove the old one? if not and you are going to DIY it I would get a new element from Heatrod and take it with you when next you go. I would prefer to have had the old one removed first to check the thread and length but everything pionts to it being 1¼ BSPP, 11" long.

Hex size looks like 60mm (2 3/8" AF)
 
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